Government resists calls to increase electricity tariff – Minister
The government is resisting proposals by electricity service providers through the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to increase tariffs due to rising operational costs, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Energy, has said.
He stated that the request would only be granted, if losses were reduced and the PURC’s methodology on tariff adjustment was made “transparent and non-punitive.”
Taking his turn at Government’s Meet the Press series in Accra, Dr Prempeh said between 2017 to 2021, Electricity Company of Ghana’s cumulative system losses amounted to about GH¢8.9 billion.
“…We are resisting the calls for increased tariffs so we sort out our losses. The more we address our losses we can call for increment. If your losses are so much, how do you convince consumers to pay more?” he said.
Between 2017 and 2021, ECG’s commercial losses amounted to about GH¢6.1 billion representing a jump from 13.90 per cent to 20.47 per cent, Dr Prempeh said.
The Minister said collection losses cumulatively amounted to about GH¢4.1 billion representing a jump from 13.90 per cent to 20.47 per cent.
Dr Prempeh said the ECG had rolled out projects including the upgrading of power lines to reduce losses and increase transmission capacity.
“The Kumasi -Kintampo section was completed and energised to improve the voltages in the Ashanti and Northern Regions. This completes the entire 330kV Kumasi – Bolgatanga Transmission line which supports exporting power to Burkina Faso through the existing 225kV interconnection line,” he said.
He said there was an initiative to harmonise metering systems, remote and early detection of faults and managing all metering systems on a common platform to reduce workload.
Dr Prempeh said Geographic Information Systems had been introduced to help ECG to attain accurate asset inventory with electric poles, transformers, cable lines, substations and other electric utilities.
He noted that a software called Enterprise Resource Planning had been introduced in the operations of ECG to integrate the company’s business processes to facilitate seamless workflow for efficient operations.
Source: GNA